her Polish village, had its own
farm-buildings, and had always been separately cultivated. It occupied
about a quarter of the plain, had a distillery on it, and had been
rented for many years by a brandy-merchant, well to do. His lease had
been extended by Ehrenthal, but the sum he paid was low. However, his
occupancy was at present a good thing for the property, as it insured
some return for one portion of it, at least. The devastated wood was
under the care of a forester.

The first walk through the portion adjacent to the castle was as little
cheering as possible: the fields were, generally speaking, not prepared
for winter-sowing; and wherever the marks of the plow appeared, the land
had been taken possession of by the villagers, who regarded the
neglected property as their perquisite, and looked morosely at the
foreign settlers.

For years they had done none of the work that their feudal tenure
required of them, and the village bailiff plainly told Anton that the
community would resent any return to old customs. He pretended he did
not understand a word of German, and even Karl's eloquence failed to
conciliate him. The soil itself, neglected and weedy as it was, turned
out generally better than Anton had expected, and the landlord boasted
of his crops; but in the vicinity of the wood it was very poor, and in
many places quite unfit for culture.

"This is a serious sort of day," said Anton, putting up his pocket-book.
"Harness the britzska; we will drive to see the cattle."

The farm where the cattle were quartered lay to the west, about a mile
and a half from the castle. A miserable stable and the cottage of a
farm-servant was all they found there. The cows and a pair of draught
oxen were under his charge, and he lived there with his wife and a
half-witted herdsman. None of these people understood much German, or
inspired any confidence: the wife was a dirty woman, without shoes and
stockings, whose milk-pails looked as if long unwashed. The
farm-servant, and sometimes the herdsman, plowed with the yoke of oxen
wherever they chose; the cattle fed on the meadow land.

"Here is work for you," said Anton; "examine the cattle, and see what
you can find of winter provender. I will make an inventory of the
building and implements."

Karl soon came to report. "Four-and-twenty milch cows, twelve heifers,
and an old bull; about a dozen cows, at most, are in profit, the rest
mere grass-devourers: the whole of them are